Roman Kade: Code Lyoko
by Xenakun
Summary: A transfer student arrives at Kadic, and he knows quite a bit of information. How will the Lyoko crew handle this. Join them as they attempt to keep their home safe and stop X.A.N.A. For anyone who has been here before I am republishing this story. I am going to polish up the previous chapters and put some new ideas in the next one. Hopefully you guys will like it!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko. All rights go to Moonscope. I only own my 'oc' Roman Kade

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Chapter 1: Transfer Student

Student chatter filled the classroom air as students began coming into a classroom. Each student began filling their seat one by one and socializing amongst themselves awaiting the arrival of their teacher.

"Does anyone know where Ms. Herts is?" A boy with blonde hair said. Three heads shook in denial.

"This is really odd, she's usually here before all of us." A girl with pink hair said.

"Well even teachers can have a slow start Aelita." A boy with spiked blond hair said while leaning back in his chair.

"Seems like everyday is a slow start for you odd." A boy with brown hair said. The three laughed at his joke.

"Jokes aside Ulrich, it's been five minutes and she still isn't here."

"Calm down Jeremie." Ulrich said, "Maybe she's just grabbing her coffee."

The door opened and in came Ms. Hertz. She did not close the door as she usually does which means that someone was meant to follow her in. Looking back at the door she smiled and cleared her throat to get the attention of her class and make an announcement.

"Class today we have a transfer student. He's from America so everyone be nice to him."

Whispers could be heard throughout the classroom from various students.

"We're getting a transfer student?"

"How cool."

"She said he's from America."

Odd, Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aelita did not say a word to each other yet. They merely looked at the each other, shared a nod, then looked at the door in anticipation.

Ms. Hertz looked at the door one more time. "You can come in now."

The student walked into the classroom and everyone inside was silent. He walked in through the door with his head tilted slightly down. A gasp was heard and a whisper of his hair was mentioned. He was dark-skinned with white hair. He wore a gray shirt with a jacket over it of the same colour. His pants were the same colour and his shoes were also white. In his right hand he carried a small notebook.

"Woah, white hair"

"His hair is so cool"

The student walked until he was positioned in front of the desk Ms. Hertz stands behind and looked up. His eyes were a dark brown, they could be easily mistaken for black if the person was not paying attention. Not a single word was uttered by the class. His eyes did not shine, nor were they dull. They were average, they showed no emotion. His face was blank, each feature of his face resting making it impossible to guess what he may be thinking.

Ms. Hertz stood behind him and spoke, "Would you like for me to introduce you?" The student shook his head in denial. Then he opened his mouth to speak.

"My name is Roman Kade." His voice came out smoothly.

The whole class stared at him. This was the first time they had ever met someone like him and already he made them feel uneasy.

Ms. Hertz looked at the class and back to Roman and clapped her hands to gain their attention. "Okay Roman, there is an open seat behind Odd Della Robia. You may sit there."

Roman looked to Odd and their eyes locked. Odd quickly looked away shifting his eyes anywhere else that was not Roman. Roman began walking towards his seat passing by the group of five before he was seated. The way he was seated he happened to be to the left of Odd.

Ulrich looked over at Roman and watched him for a second. To Ulrich he seemed like an okay person, he just looked a little odd on the surface. Redirecting his attention to the sound of chalk striking a board he concluded he would talk to the others about it late. Letting out a sigh he decided to just focus on the lesson.

 ***Lunch Break***

The sound of a bell ringing signified the end of the class. Students began to pack their things up and filter out of the classroom. "Don't forget tonight's homework." Ms. Hertz said as the students vacated the room.

The group of four, Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, and Jeremie opened up the door and looked at their usual table. Already seated was their friend and last member of their group Yumi Ishiyama. Looking behind her they could see Roman already seated at another table silently eating. Grabbing their lunch one by one they began to sit at the table.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Yumi greeted her friends. Ulrich decided to speak up.

"Nothing, just had an interesting science class was all."

"I heard we got a transfer student." Yumi looked around. "I wonder where they are."

"Look behind you" Jeremie said. Yumi did exactly that and when she looked at Roman her eyebrows lifted slightly. After a few seconds she turned back around finding three pairs of eyes on her.

"What?" She asked confused.

Odd bumped her shoulder twice with a sly grin on his face. "So, what do you think."

Yumi thought to herself for a moment before she opened her mouth to voice her opinion. "It's the first time I've seen a person like him but it looks like he is just very alone."

The group all looked over at Roman and saw him scribbling in his notebook with a tray of food next to him, they nodded in agreement. The lunch room door opened and three students walked through the door. Each student grabbed their lunch and continued to walk towards their table.

"Hello Ulrich dear. "One of the three said with a grin.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not your Ulrich dear." Said an annoyed Ulrich.

"You should come eat with me today." She chided. "Come on, ditch those four."

"Well would you look at that Ulrich." Odd said with surprise in his voice "Sissi learned a new number! Isn't that just precious."

The group of five shared a laugh as Sissi fumed at the retort made by them. With a "Hmph" She and the two she came with walked past them right to the table where Roman was seated. Walking up with confidence she sat in the seat directly in front of him while the other two flanked her left and right. Roman noticed this stopped writing and looked up. Black met dark brown, there Sissi decided to speak up.

"So you're our new transfer student. What's your name?"

"Roman, Roman Kade." Roman spoke in a monotone voice.

Sissi leaned away from him in her chair. "What's with your voice?" She leaned back and held her head up by both of her arms on the table.

Roman's monotone voice drew the attention of the five sitting at the table behind her. "My apologies if I offended you Elisabeth Delmas."

"How do you know my name already?" Sissi asked curiously. The two beside her claimed both the seats beside here listening intently. His next answer surprised both her group and the one behind her listening in.

Roman turned a few pages in his notebook"I have done necessary research on the individuals here who seem to have made a mark. I know of you," Roman glanced at the two, "and the two beside you."

The group of three did not say anything, they listened as he saw the need to continue.

"Your name is Elisabeth Delmas, you are an eighth grader here at Kadic Academy. The two beside you are Nicolas Poliakoff and Herb Pichon. They are also eighth graders."

"Wow it looks like he really does know us Sissi." The newly named Nicolas said.

"Incredible." Herb said.

Roman's face remained blank and passive as the three stared at him. "Well." Sissi began "First off, the name's Sissi" Sissi crossed her arms, "I don't like the name Elisabeth. Second off you should hang around me, it would be a lot of fun."

' _There's no way he could deny me, I'm the Principal's daughter'_ Sissi thought to herself.

"My apologies once again Sissi Delmas, but there's nothing you've done that makes you credible of your word." Roman's eyes once again glanced over at Nicolas and Herb who stood up beside her.

Sissi stood up in shock. Just who did this guy think he is? This transfer student just rejected her invitation into her group. "W-what do you mean by that."

Roman maintained eye contact with Sissi as he stood up with his notebook, closed in his hands. when he did Sissi saw that he was about the same height as her. She took a few steps back."I observed the interactions you held with the group of five behind you. While you showed a fondness for one individual, you spoke as if the others were not around him." His voice never wavered from the monotone he held.

Nicolas decided he was going to show Roman to respect Sissi. "Listen here you." Nicolas reached for the collar of Roman's jacket in an attempt to threaten him. A soft slap on the ground, a grunt was heard, and a smash stopping the whole lunchroom and bringing their attention to the back of the room.

Out of the group of five, Odd was seen standing in his chair to get a better view. The other's eyes widened as the could not believe what they just saw.

Nicolas had been flipped onto the table that Roman had just got done eating on. Roman stance was still in that of a throwing position. Roman straightened his body and stood straight up and looked at Sissi. Nicolas struggled to his feet, after being thrown by that kid. He wanted to get even. Rushing back at Roman he was stopped by a man of large stature. The gym teacher Jim Morales stood between Roman and Nicolas.

"Now now just what is going on here?" Jim looked around

Sissi pointed an accusing finger at Roman. "It was him, he threw Nicolas across the table"

Jim looked down at Roman in surprise. "You _threw_ Poliakoff? He's twice your size."

Roman's face never changed and he answered in the same voice as he looked up at Jim. "An off balance force can easily be redirected with the proper technique." Roman then picked up his notebook.

"Nicolas wasn't trying to hurt him, but he just threw him." Sissi spoke up.

Roman narrowed his eyes at Sissi giving him an upset look. "Nicolas Poliakoff attempted to come in contact with my person, I took precautionary measures as I saw fit with the most minimal of injuries for him."

Jim looked around to the rest of lunchroom for verification. "Did anyone else see what happened?"

Odd chose this time to speak up "Yeah Jim, I saw the whole thing from start to finish."

"Come with me, you too transfer student. Poliakoff, let's go. We're going to the Principal's office." Jim, Nicolas, and Roman left the lunchroom to the Principal's office.

Jeremy stood up and turned back to his group "Come on guys, let's go"

A "right" came from each person as they followed their friend to the Principal's office to see the results of the altercation. Sissi was halfway through the door when she looked back at Herb "What are you waiting for? Let's go." Sissi ran after those who just left.

"C-coming Sissi."

 ***Principal's office***

Jim and the three behind him came into the Principal's room when they were given the signal.

"What is the meaning of this, your first day and you're already in my office Roman? I expected better of you." Delmas said in as disapproving voice. Roman's expression did not change nor did he open his mouth in protest. Instead, Jim stepped forward.

"There was an altercation between Kade and Poliakoff in the lunchroom." Jim supplied.

"An altercation?!" Delmas exclaimed.

"I brought these two here and Della Robia to explain the situation" Jim stepped behind the tree as they stepped forward.

Delmas leaned forward in his chair with both of his hands positioned over his mouth. "Explain what happened starting with you Roman."

"Very well." Roman stepped forward. "Whilst finishing up my lunch I was approached by one Elisabeth Delmas, Herb Pichon, and Nicolas Poliakoff. Elisabeth Delmas began a conversation with me. The conversation resulted in me telling her actions towards the group in association with Odd Della Robia were not credible. Nicolas approached me in attempt to make contact with my person. My response was to deal with him as effectively as possible whilst maintaining minimal damage to him, thus a flip was in order."

Delmas looked over to Nicolas. "Is that true Nicolas?"

Nicolas rubbed his sore shoulder as he answered " Yeah, but he didn't have to do all of that." Nicolas looked over to Roman to find that his darn face had not changed one time since this all happened.

Delmas sat back in his chair and let out a sigh. "Can you confirm that that is all that happened?" Delmas said looking at odd.

Odd nodded in agreement.

"Well then, that settles that, Nicolas you have three hours detention. You are to serve it in the library with Jim" Delmas said as an "Aw man." came from Nicolas. "Since this is your first time with anything like this happening Roman I will let you go just this once. Do not let this happen again, next time get one of the teachers"

Roman nodded his head at the request of the Principal. "As you wish Principal."

"Now you have one more class of the day, go attend that and have a good evening"

"I wish the same to you Principal Delmas."

Each person filtered out of the office one by one. Two groups were waiting on an individual from each party.

Roman walked by both parties and continued to his next class without interruption. Odd and Nicolas met up with their respective groups and they continued to their next class.

Yumi decided to speak up before their separation. "So, what happened Odd?"

"Well the new kid got off with a warning"

"Just a warning?" Jeremie chimed in "Delmas is usually more strict when fights happen."

"Well yeah, but you should have heard how he explained himself. He did it so clearly, you felt like you were right there."

"Maybe it was because you were right there Odd." Aelita mused.

"I wanna talk to him after class" Ulrich said. "That throw was pretty good. Anyone wanna back me up?" Ulrich looked at his group. "Sure!" Odd said and threw an arm around Ulrich's shoulder. "I wanna talk to him too."

"Alright then, after class it is. Where are you and Jeremie going to be Aelita?" Ulrich asked.

"We'll be nearby." Aelita answered.

"We might as well all talk to him then after class." Jeremie suggested.

With an agreeance among the group, Yumi parted her way as the four went their way.

 ***After Class***

Roman packed his things up and left the classroom, this whole day had been one interesting thing after another. ' _I wonder what happens next,'_ Roman thought to himself. Upon leaving he looked at his phone for the time and noted that it was he had a few hours to himself before dinner so he decided to get some writing in. Finding a bench under a tree he set his shoulder pack next to him and took out the notebook and began writing.

A group of four left the classroom with intention to meet up with their fifth member before confronting Roman.

"Hey guys, you ready?" Yumi said greeting her friends.

"Sure thing, anyone know where he is?" Odd asked looking around.

Each member looked around and then a tuft of white caught Yumi's eye. Pointing in the direction of white Yumi called out "He's over there." The group of five looked in the direction of her finger and saw Roman as he poked his pencil at his chin in thought before writing again.

"Well I'm going, stare if you want to." Odd said and began approaching Roman. Ulrich followed behind him and the others soon after.

Roman heard the sounds of leaves crunching and looked up from his book to see Odd Della Robia approaching him with his group following behind him. Roman closed his notebook and stood up as they began to all find a spot they were comfortable with. Roman decided to make himself audible first in thanks.

"Odd Della Robia" Odd's attention was quickly grasped at the sound at the monotoned voice. "I would like to give my gratitude to you for verifying the occurrence between Nicolas Poliakoff and myself."

"Uh?" Odd looked to Jeremie for help in trying to decipher what it was Roman was saying. Jeremie shook his head at Odd's thoughtlessness. "He's saying thank you Odd."

"Oh, no problem then buddy." Odd said giving him a friendly smile.

"I take it you already know who we are?" Jeremie asked. Roman nodded his head at the question and then began to answer.

"While I have not met you all personally, I am very aware of who each of you are." Roman began, he opened his notebook once more and turned a few pages before answering.

"Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robia, Ulrich Stern, Ishiyama Yumi, and finally Aelita…."

Aelita assumed that he did not know her given last name so she began to open her mouth when Roman suddenly finished what it was he was saying.

"Shaeffer"

The mention of that name shocked the group to silence. The one to break the silence was Aelita.

"How do you know about that name?" As she asked this question the others positioned themselves as to prevent Roman from escaping if he so tried to. Roman noticed a slight shift in their positioning and closed his eyes in before opening them again.

"I know of this name from my research and my discovery of this picture" Roman pulled a picture out of his notebook to show them the same picture Jeremy had discovered. A young Aelita was seen with a man wearing dark shaded glasses and a beard, she was smiling in this picture and so was the man.

"This man, Franz Hopper, is your father, is he not?" Roman questioned as he put the picture away.

"Jeremy I thought you said that this picture could never be discovered." Yumi voiced.

"It isn't supposed to be discovered, I don't know how he did it."

Aelita was too shocked to answer, Ulrich seen this and stepped forward.

"You don't plan on letting that out do you?"

Roman took the photo and placed it in his hand. "Dispose of this as you see fit." The group did not relax, they knew he still had the knowledge and they still do not know what the extent of what he knows is. Roman decided to speak up to relieve the tension in the air.

"This shows that my hypothesis was correct."

It was Jeremie's turn to chime in, "Hypothesis?"

"I believe you had heard me when I mentioned my researching of individuals that stick out amongst the others in this school." Roman turned to Jeremie. "Upon my discovery of this information I hypothesized if Aelita Shaeffer is a part of your group then you all would know of this last name. It seems that I was right." Turning to Ulrich he began to address his question. "Rest assured, this information was merely to satisfy my hypothesis, it will not be released to anyone else."

Aelita seemed to finally overcome her shock and began with a question "How much more do you know?"

"Code: Lyoko." Once again the words that left the person's mouth left the group in shock. This time it did not last as long. Odd asked the next question.

"How much do you know about it?"

"All I have discovered is that it is a program created by Franz Hopper. I do not know if it is still in operation to this day."

Ulrich stepped back to his original position and asked his question. " So all of this tension and no facial change huh?"

"I have a hard time making sense and showing emotions that I come across." Roman replied

"Yeah, I bet I could make you laugh." Odd added his two cents in.

"Try as you may, it is something I would like to experience."

"Are you saying you can't?" Aelita asked.

"Well, yes and no." Roman furrowed his brows in thought. "I have a hard time showing it."

"Okay guys I think we've got something to discuss." Jeremie said motioning over to another bench across from Roman.

"I take it you have been satisfied?" Roman questioned the retreating group.

"For now, we're just gonna talk about something and we will be back" Jeremie said with a smile.

"I will wait on you here." Roman sat back down and took out his notebook and continued from where he left off.

The group of five walked over to the bench across from Roman. Jeremie and Odd sat down and yumi sat on the top part of the bench behind the two, Ulrich and Aelita stood. The group sat in silence for about a minute until Yumi spoke up.

"So, what's the plan guys?"

"He definitely knows a lot." Ulrich said."He doesn't know everything though." Aelita responded.

"Yeah, but he knows enough" Jeremie said. "Because of his face I can't tell if he has any other intentions."

"Well Einstein, he does keep to himself and he doesn't look like to type to just give out that information. With the way he handled Nicolas today I think we should include him in our group." Odd said.

"Odd's got a point Jeremie." Ulrich said. "He knows about Aelita and Lyoko, not to mention he is capable of handling himself."

"I think you guys are trusting this guy a little too fast. We can't tell what he is thinking or what he might do." Aelita said.

"Yeah but if he was able to find that picture of you and Franz then he is more than capable of finding out about the rest of Lyoko." Ulrich said.

"It's Jeremie's call. If he wants to take the chance let's back him up on it." Aelita finalized. The group turned to Jeremie who was thinking very hard on the situation. A few minutes passed before Jeremie looked up then at his watch. "We've got two hours until dinner. Let's take a chance. If all else fails, I'll launch a return to the past and we won't even mention it again. Deal?"

Something did not sound right to Aelita. "I thought you couldn't erase the memories of someone who had been entered into Lyoko."

"Well." Jeremie smiled. "I was looking into a few codes and what not and found out I could. With just a few adjustments to the DNA code of you guys, I can make it so you never knew about Lyoko."

With an "Oh" and a resounding agreement between the group they all got back up and walked over to Roman. Roman noticed their approach and placed his book away once more. Jeremie took the lead.

"Okay Roman we've got two hours, but you have to swear to us. All of us" Jeremie said sternly

"What is it that I am swearing to?" Roman asked with his ever-so passive face.

"Swear that what we are about to show you will never leave you for as long as you live."

Roman closed his eyes letting a breeze wash over him as he thought to himself. Moments passed as he suddenly opened his eyes. Dark brown met blue, if anyone else looked it would seem as an intense staring contest was taking place. Then Roman opened his mouth for his answer.

"You have my word. Not a soul will be told."

A sigh of relief sounded through the group.

"Follow us, we've got two hours, let's make it count." Jeremie led the way.

The group of now six walked over through the trees to find a manhole with a cover the top. Turning to Roman, Yumi addressed him. "Before you come down here you have to make sure that no one see's you, if so our whole secret will be found out, okay?"

Roman nodded at Yumi's words. "You have my word Ishiyama Yumi."

Odd opened the manhole and each member began going down one by one. The last two were Ulrich and Roman. "Hey Roman" Ulrich called for Roman's attention. "Why do you call Yumi by her last name first?"

"Ishiyama Yumi is of Japanese descent is she not?"

Ulrich's nod confirmed his question.

"In Japanese customs you are to use the last name first and first name last. It would be disrespectful of me to address her by her first name when we have barely met" Roman clarified.

Ulrich did not say anything else, both headed down the manhole and Roman covered it back up.

Odd noticed they took longer than usual. "What took you guys so long?"

"Nothing Odd, just had something to ask him." Ulrich answered.

The group continued as they passed their usual transportation Roman noticed the skateboards and scooters and decided to ask a question.

"There are several means of transportation here. Is it safe to assume there are time you all must arrive at this destination quickly?"

"Yeah" Yumi answered his question. "Sometimes we have to be there in a hurry." Aelita fielded the next part of the answer.

"Interesting."

The group arrived at the ladder used to climb up. Each person climbed the ladder. Once everyone was up Odd decided to tell Roman where they were.

"Welcome to the factory Roman! This is the place we'll be coming to several times when the time comes for it."

In a show of interest Roman raised an eyebrow and asked a question "What might you mean when you say 'when the time comes for it'?"

"I will answer that one when we get there" Jeremie said.

Walking into the factory Roman noticed it was vacant. All he could think is ' _Interesting'_ as he watched each person take a rope and swing to what looks like an elevator.

"What are you waiting for? Come on!" Odd yelled back to Roman.

Roman followed suit and followed the others into the elevator.

"So, any thoughts so far?" Ulrich asked.

"Interesting." Roman responded in a astonishing voice.

"Heh, we're not even to the good part yet." Jeremie said

Arriving at the first floor the door opened to reveal a massive computer. It was the first kind Roman had ever seen and though he could not show it on the surface, he was floored.

"This is very interesting"

Jeremie and the others began walking towards the computer, Roman followed slowly. Jermie took the seat and it revolved around the middle of the room to a monitor.

"This is called the Super Computer. It was created by Franz Hopper and holds the world of Lyoko on it." Jeremie said with a smile as he watched Roman's eyes take in all around him. A hologram was projected from the object in the middle of the floor that immediately caught the attention of Roman.

"This is a hologram of the world of Lyoko" Aelita supplied. "It shows all five sectors and can pinpoint a tower."

"That's not all we are here for though" Jeremie's sudden input drew the attention of Roman. "We come here because of a threat against humanity know as X.A.N.A."

"X.A.N.A?" Roman questioned.

"Yes. This program was an artificial intelligence created by Franz Hopper but gained independent thinking and trapped him there. It's only desire is to stop us and try to enslave everyone on Earth. Your job in Lyoko is to guide Aelita to the tower that has been activated and keep her safe as she deactivates it. X.A.N.A. can also affect the world out here around us so we have to keep each other and the school safe."

"Interesting." Was the only response from Roman.

"Jeremie operates the computer while directing us on Lyoko." Aelita continued. "From here he can see everything and warn us of hazards coming up to block us from where we need to be."

Roman turned to Aelita, everyone swore he look surprised but if he was the look went away too fast to register. "You mean to tell me that you are injected into this virtual universe from Earth?" His voice seemed rise ever so slightly in surprise.

"Exactly" Jeremie said with confident smile.

Roman's face did not show any special response. His face was still blank. "Interesting" was all that left his mouth. Odd noticed this and spoke up.

"Still no response huh. I'll get you to smile, just you wait."

Jeremie shook his head at his friend's statement and looked up. "Alright guys head towards the scanners. Time to put him in."

Odd, Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi all looked at Jeremie in surprise. They had not expected him to want to place Roman in Lyoko so quickly. "You sure about this?" Ulrich asked.

"Definitely."

After filling in the elevator, the four motioned Roman to follow along who came without hesitation. The elevator went down one floor and opened up to the room of the scanners. Jeremie's voice could be heard over the intercom.

"There are only three scanners so you guys will have to go rounds of two."

Odd looked over to Roman's passive face "We would usually do ladies first plus one of us."

Roman looked over to the scanners once before looking back to Odd to answer him. "Which one of you will be accompanying them into the scanners?" Roman asked. Ulrich stepped forward quickly.

"Odd went last time so I will go first this time." Ulrich clarified. Looking he gave Jeremie the confirmation. "Alright Einstein, we're in."

The doors on the scanners shut one by one and Jeremie began the process to virtualization.

"Transfer Aelita, transfer Yumi, transfer Ulrich. Scanner Aelita, scanner Yumi, scanner Ulrich. Virtualization."

The three dropped onto the mountain sector surface. Each person made sure they were set before confirming to Jeremie.

"Okay we're here Jeremie. Send in the last two" Yumi said.

"Alright." Redirecting his attention to the remaining two in the scanner room he began to direct Roman. "Alright Roman step into open scanner in front of you. I will transfer and virtualize you like the others."

Roman looked into the open transfer Ishiyama Yumi had just been standing in. She was gone now, and this was not adding up inside his head. Three people walked into these cylinders and now no one was there. Would this process be safe? Would he be safely placed onto the world of Lyoko?

Roman stood still as he complentated his choice of stepping into the scanners or not. Odd walked up and placed hand on Roman's shoulder bringing him quickly out of his thoughts. "There's nothing to worry about. Just trust Jeremie, he's never let us down before. It doesn't look like you're the type of person to space out, even if your face looks like it." Odd gave Roman a wide smile reassuring him that he would be safe throughout this journey.

"Odd Della-" Roman began but Odd had cut him off before he could finish saying the rest of his name.

"Odd."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Call us by our first names man. We're friends now." Odd said while stepping into a scanner. "Let's go meet the rest of our friends."

"Friends…" Roman mumbled

The last thing roman saw before the closing doors was Odd's grin. _'Certainly interesting indeed.'_ Jeremie's voice rang out as he spoke the process of the virtualization to Roman.

"Okay Roman so first, the supercomputer will scan your dna code and imprint you into its system. Next, a card will load up with your picture on it and you will be placed into the world of Lyoko."

Roman listened to his words in silence as his body was scanned from the bottom to the top. He heard Jeremie's voice again repeating the same thing he said for the last three that were transferred, but this time it was for him and Odd.

"Transfer Odd, transfer Roman, Scanner Odd, scanner Roman. Virtualization."

At the sound of a person being virtualized Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita looked up. Odd and Roman both dropped down to the mountain surface with Odd landing in a crouch position. Behind him Roman landed, but flat on his behind.

"Well would you look at that." Ulrich said calling their attention to the person behind Odd.

Roman had landed into a world with mountains. Standing up he dusted himself off he took in his surroundings and noticed the rocky area. To the others he stood still, what Roman was actually doing was identifying his five senses. _'I can smell, see, and hear. I believe myself to be capable of speech.'_ Roman took his finger and placed it on his tongue. At the taste of his flesh he pulled his hand away confirming each sense. Roman then began to inspect himself as the others watched. On his hands were black, fingerless gloves. He wore black trench coat, with long black pants. His shoes were black also but they were boots, made for combat. Pulling on a lock of his hair in front of his eyes he seen that his hair remained the same colour as it did on Earth. A voice brought him out of his thoughts and he turned around to face the source of it.

"Welcome to Lyoko!" Odd said happily.

Roman observed the four standing in front of him. A yellow samurai, with a demon mask, or Oni on his back. He was Ulrich. A purple cat person. 'That's Odd.' Roman thought. The black-haired one was Yumi. She stood in a geisha outfit with a kimono suited for combat. The last one was Aelita, she stood next to Yumi. She wore elvish clothes. They were white a white base with pink lining the the insides. Upon closer inspection he noticed her ears making her really resemble an elf. He noticed the approving looks of the group and began to move forward.

"How do you feel?" Ulrich asked as he walked towards Roman.

"I feel different, and the same." Roman looked at his hand and clenched his fist a few times. "This is strange, is what I am feeling real?"

Ulrich rested his hand on the hilt of the blade at his hip as the three behind him walked up to give an answer to his question.

"This is as real as you see it." Yumi said inspecting Roman. "Well well, don't you look handsome." Yumi said with a smile and looked at his face. To her surprise he still showed no emotion.

Aelita walked next to her confirming Yumi's statement. "You're going to be a tough one Roman but don't worry you'll be smiling in no time."

Roman looked at Aelita before asking his next question. "You all plan on helping me settle these emotions?"

"Well yeah, of course. You need a group of friends to hang around since you're here and since you know so much about our group already, why not?" Odd said.

Strangely Roman felt comfortable in the presence of these four individuals. Something about them being near him told him that he belonged there despite what he had been told before. His facial expression did not change but he was genuinely thankful for what they are doing for him.

"I give you my sincerest thanks. This is the first time I have been included in a group of friends. I understand I cannot show it on the surface, but I am truly thankful." Roman kept eye contact with the group as they looked back at him.

"Aelita can you send me a visual of what he looks like?" Jeremy asked from seemingly nowhere. At the sound of his voice Roman looked up. Aelita saw this and decided to answer to his curiosity.

"Jeremie is still in the factory at the computer, so don't worry. He can see us but we can't see him. Jeremie I'm sending it now." Aelita called out.

Once the visual was sent to Jeremie he seen Roman and his eyebrows rose in surprise. "Incredible, Roman made it there safe and he looks very cool."

"Thank you Jeremie" Roman said. Yumi noticed that Roman had not said Jeremie's full name like he had earlier and wondered why that was.

"Oh, you're finally using our first names now?" Yumi asked.

"Yes. Odd informed me that it was fine to use your first names to address you all. He said that we were friends." Roman explained.

"Well, since today we are now." Yumi gave Roman a soft smile.

"Jeremie, how much time do we have? I wanna see what he can do." Ulrich asked

"We've got about 45 minutes until dinner. So if you are going to spar, do it fast." Jeremie advised.

"Yeah" Odd chimed in. "It's meatloaf tonight. I love meatloaf." Odd finished while rubbing his stomach.

"I saw that flip, what was that?" Ulrich asked.

"It was Judo. I have experience with Judo and Jiu-jitsu." Roman replied.

"Really, why?"

"My parents decided it would be a good decision I could defend myself. A correct choice in their judgement."

Ulrich and Roman took a few steps away from each other, then away from the group.

"So you want to fight me?" Roman asked.

" Something like that." Ulrich drew his blade. "In this world you have life points. You start with 100. Once you hit zero, you're devirtualized and sent back to Earth."

"In any case of being devirtualized, am I able to come back immediately." Roman's question took them by surprise. Luckily for them Jeremie had a response ready for him.

"No, you can't but only if you are devirtualized. The supercomputer needs time to re-build your models here on Lyoko. The time limit is 12 hours. If you aren't devirtualized then you can come and go as you please."

"Interesting." Roman responded.

"Well no sense of waiting, Super Sprint!" Ulrich announced. With tremendous speed he was in front of Roman with his blade already moving.

"Ulrich take it easy!" Yumi yelled. Her expression changed to that of awe when she noticed Roman had already duck the blade and shocked even more when he heard an "oof" from Ulrich. Ulrich had been swept off of his feet by Roman. Ulrich rolled backwards from Roman to gain some distance.

"Well your reactions aren't slow." Ulrich said dusting himself off.

"Your speed is inhuman." Roman said while slipping into a fighting stance.

"It might feel like the real world but we're all different here." Ulrich pointed a thumb at the spectating group. "Look at them, all different people on Lyoko."

Roman took a good look at each person before forming his next question. "Is it wise to assume you all have abilities here as well?"

"Yeah, now we just gotta figure out yours." Ulrich said readying himself.

With a battle cry Ulrich had charged towards Roman once again using super sprint. Ulrich performed a diagonal slice that Roman dodged and countered with a roundhouse kick to Ulrich's left side. Bringing up his arm to block he pushed away the boot of Roman and sliced at his head. Roman ducked the slice and went for another sweep at the legs. Not one to be caught a second time, Ulrich jumped high and went for a vertical spinning slash directly at the position of Roman. Recovering quickly from the sweep Roman rolled to the right but was too slow as Ulrich was over him with his blade in motion. With no choices left Roman brought his hand up to block the blade.

"What?" could be heard from each person as they could not believe what they just seen. Roman's hand was coated in a black energy protecting him from Ulrich's blade.

"Aelita, that energy looks like the same from your Energy Fields, except black." Yumi said.

Aelita formed a ball of energy known as "Energy Field" into her hand and looked at it closely and back at the hands of Roman.

Roman took advantage of the shock of his opponent and brought the blade across his chest causing Ulrich to stumble forwards. This allowed Roman to spin and use the back of his other fist and strike Ulrich in the head causing him to fly towards the spectators. Ulrich was caught by the Telekinesis of Yumi and placed back onto the ground. Ulrich gave a quick thanks as Jeremie's voice rang out to everyone.

"Ulrich you've lost 20 life points. 80 left."

Rubbing the back of his head Ulrich readied his stance.

Roman looked at the black energy that coated his hands. Inside he was amazed, outside he only raised his eyebrows.

"Triplicate!" Ulrich suddenly split into three people. Roman readied himself again as each Ulrich approached him. Both the clones and the original surrounded Roman before closing in on him with a slash. Before the slash could connect Roman jumped into the air. Taking another look at his hands he thought of a way to utilize the energy he had discovered. Falling back to the ground between the Ulrichs, Roman's fist hit the ground below him and a shockwave of black energy surged in a circular pattern.

"Oh, what?" Ulrich tried to move but found himself unable to. This black energy had paralyzed his form. Roman charged his fist before throwing a fist at Ulrich's form. Black energy fired from the fist to Roman. Ulrich managed to break free of the paralysis in time and used Super Sprint to close in on Romans location. Since Roman shot the blast of energy he was left vulnerable to recharge.

' _This is quite the predicament.'_ Roman thought.

Roman attempted to roll to the side. This attempt was foiled because of the loss of stamina used for the previous attack. Ulrich was able to catch him and kick the heel of Roman's foot causing him to fall flat on his back. Ulrich stood over his form with his sword aimed at the neck of his opponent.

"I concede" Roman said. Ulrich offered his hand to help Roman up and Roman accepted the offer.

"Alright guys, we've got 30 minutes to get back to school before dinner. I'll bring you in." Jeremie said as he started to devirtualize the first three that came in.

"Devirtualize Odd, devirtualize Yumi, devirtualize Aelita."

Ulrich walked over to Roman and held his hand out. Roman saw the offer for the handshake and met him the rest of the way.

"That was fun." Ulrich said.

"Indeed, it was-" Roman was cut off by Ulrich.

"Interesting?"

"Yes."

Jeremie's voice rang out once more signaling the devirtualization of Ulrich and Roman.

"Devirtualize Ulrich, devirtualize Roman."

Roman looked at his feet and saw as his form began to disappear in white squares. _'This day proved to be very interesting.'_ This was the last thought Roman had as his consciousness was brought back to his body on Earth. When his scanner opened he saw his new friends waiting for him smiles on each of their faces.

"How do you feel?" Jeremie asked Roman.

"I feel like myself once again." Roman answered back.

"Any idea what that black energy was?" Aelita asked.

Roman shook his head in denial.

"Well, don't worry" Odd said as he leaned on Roman's shoulder. "We'll figure it out. Now let's go to lunch I'm starving."

"You're always starving Odd." Yumi said with a giggle.

The group with the exception of Roman shared in the laugh as they began the journey back towards the school. Passing by the transportation once more before the final climb up, Odd had one more question for Roman. "Hey Roman, do you have a skateboard or a scooter?"

"I have a skateboard with me." Roman answered.

"Good, bring it next time we come down here. It will be the fastest way to reach the factory, oh and welcome to the group Roman." Odd finished with a smile.

"I give you my gratitude once again." Roman responded.

Climbing the ladder the group made their way towards the lunch room once again.

"Ah Rosa, the meatloaf smells delicious." Odd said while receiving his portion.

"Thank you Odd." Rosa said back before giving the other students their food.

Each person picked up their food and walked over to their person took a seat and the only seat left was the one next to Odd. "Looks like we finally got someone to fill that spot." Ulrich said looking at Roman. Roman did not respond his attention was focused on his hand as he opened and closed it constantly. Another hand drew his attention when it came into his view and set on top of his. It was Yumi's.

"Don't worry, nothing will come from your hand." Yumi locked eyes with him and have him a reassuring smile. "We're in the real world now for sure." Yumi pulled her hand away and began eating.

Roman began eating while looking at his hand. His face hid his thoughts well. Inside his head he began questioning everything he knew after that experience. People could be inserted into a virtual universe from Earth! There was more to this, more he wanted to know, needed to know. His body was transformed from matter to particles and back to matter before he knew what happened. It felt surreal to him but strangely enough, it did not bother him. He looked once at his newly acquired companions and felt pleased to have them. He knew one thing and that was his boundaries. He would soon have the answers he needed from them, all he needed to do was bide his time. This also meant that he had much to write about. Jeremie noticed Romans blank gaze at them but did not respond to him, all he did was give him a smile that had a meaning behind it. "We'll help you out." It took forever to him but for once he felt accepted.

The sounds of a door opening brought those facing it, attention to it. Sissi walked through the door still accompanied by Nicolas and Herb. As Sissi and her two companions walked past the Lyoko group's table she noticed a head of white and stopped.

"So you managed to get that transfer kid in your group huh? How'd you do it? Pressure him?" Sissi said with a smug grin.

The group minus one all looked at Sissi angrily, new member or not, no one insulted one of their group and got away with it. Aelita opened her mouth to retort to her but a voice spoke before her.

"Sissi Delmas. I believe you of all people know the results of bothering me." Roman's eyes seemed to pierce right through her, though his face kept its blank state his eyes told a different story.

Roman held his gaze at Sissi to what felt like a century to her before turning away. "W-whatever." She and her two companions walked away not before Nicolas turned back to exchange some words with Roman.

"I didn't forget what you did, watch your back transfer kid." Nicolas began to walk away after stating this but Roman's voice halted him.

"Nicolas Poliakoff, I apologize for my actions earlier, but I am not fond of aggressive contact. I merely responded naturally. I hope we can get along in the future."

Nicolas paused at his words. He seemed to have considered his request before walking away.

"Think he'll forgive you?" Yumi said.

"Perhaps." Was Roman's reply.

Roman looked at his food and closed his eyes taking in all that just happened around him. Then he opened his mouth.

"This day has been most interesting indeed."

 ***After dinner***

The group finished dinner and began to head to the gates to see Yumi off.

"Where is our destination?" Roman asked.

"We're going to see Yumi off, she doesn't live here. She stays at home. It's still close so don't worry" Ulrich said.

Yumi began walking through the gates before she stopped. "I almost forgot guys, we have to give Roman our numbers."

A short exchange of numbers and goodbye's Yumi was walking back to her home and The other five began walking to their respective rooms. With a goodbye Aelita walked towards her room and the four boys began walking back to theirs.

Odd and Ulrich arrived at their room and said their good night before going inside. Roman and Jeremie both bid them good night as they continued along. Jeremie stopped in front of his room and opened the door. Before he walked through the door he asked Roman a quick question.

"Where is your room at Roman?"

Roman looked at his room and the door next to it and voiced his answer with a point of his finger.

"Next to yours."

"Really, well that's convenient. Good night then buddy, I'll see you tomorrow"

With a nod of Roman's head Jeremie closed his door and Roman began walking towards his room. Setting his things down he decided. That he would read before he went off to sleep. Before opening his book he looked at his clock to see it was 8:00 p.m.

 ***At Yumi's house***

"I'm home!" Yumi yelled as she walked through her front door. "Hello?" She called out. It was weird to her that no one was home. She began taking her shoes off but stopped when she heard the voice of her mother.

"Hello Yumi, welcome home." Yumi's mother said.

Yumi slipped her shoe back on using her back to shield her vision but did not stand up. Instead she decided to ask a question.

"Hey mom, where's Hiroki and dad?" Yumi's asked.

"They are sleep, just as you should be." Yumi heard her mother's voice and it sounded distorted and there was only one reason for that.

' _Xana.'_ Yumi thought to herself. Without raising suspicion she got up and thought of an excuse to warn the rest of her gang.

"Honey where are you going? It's past curfew" The distorted voice could be heard in front of her as the X.A. mother blocked the door from Yumi.

"Sorry mom." Yumi apologized before performing a drop kick. The kick connected and Yumi's mother slammed into the door before falling down. Yumi recovered quickly and bolted out of the door. As she left two more figures revealed themselves to be Yumi's father and her little brother, Hiroki.

"After her!" The distorted voice of the mother ordered as the two began their pursuit of Yumi.

Running towards the academy Yumi took out her phone and called Aelita.

"Answer, come on pick up Aelita."

 ***With Aelita***

Aelita stirred awake from the sound of her phone ringing.

"Who calls at a time like this?" Taking a look at her phone she found the answer to her question. "Yumi!"

"Yumi?" Aelita could hear Yumi's breaths and was immediately alert. " What's wrong?" Aelita asked as she sat up on her bed sat up on her bed.

"Aelita .X.A.N.A.'s activated a tower he possessed my family. Get the others and get to Lyoko."

"What about you?" Aelita asked.

I'll lead them away from the factory for as long as I can." A grunt could be heard from her end of the phone. "Hurry!"

Aelita was dressed in a matter of second and was out the door. Aelita found the boy's dorm and began traveling down the stairs to the Jeremie's room. Knocking on Jeremie's room door the response was quick as Jeremie was already awake and beginning to move to alert the others of the attack.

"Aelita, good that you're here, I was just getting ready to call you and the others about the X.A.N.A. attack." Jeremie said while closing his door.

"Yumi already called me, her family is possessed by X.A.N.A. She said she is leading them away from the factory."

"She can't hold them off for long, you get Roman. I'll grab Ulrich and Odd."

"Where is his room?" Aelita asked looking around.

"Next to mine's" Jeremie answered before walking into Odd and Ulrich's room.

Aelita walked towards his door and noticed that his light was still on. She gave the door a few slight knocks before she head foot steps approaching the door. She stepped back as Roman opened the door. His face still as blank as she remembered it when he left, his curiosity was still there though.

"How can I help you Aelita?" Roman asked.

"We've got to go to Lyoko. X.A.N.A's launched an attack." Aelita said in a hurried voice.

Roman looked at her for a moment before responding "I will be right there."

"Okay" Aelita said as she watched Odd and Ulrich come out of their bedroom like zombies.

"I was at the good part of my dream too." Odd whined.

"Whine later, we've got something to take care of." Ulrich said then let out a yawn.

"Are we ready?" Roman asked coming out of his room.

Odd looked over at Roman and found he did not look tired. "Roman how are you just, awake? Odd said wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"I was not sleep yet. I was writing in my notebook." Roman responded.

Jeremie decided to remind them of the position they were in.

"Need I remind you our friend is being chased by X.A.N.A.? Let's go, she doesn't have much time."

With that statement the group began making their way to the factory.

 ***With Yumi***

Yumi ran past the gates of the school. Looking behind her she could see that her two possessed family members were gaining on her. Leading them into the city seemed like a good choice so she would go for it. Running into the city she noticed an alley she could duck into and get a break. Utilizing a shadow and a thrown rock she redirected the attention of the X.A.N. Ishiyamas and hid in the alley she had been looking at. Yumi took this time to catch her breath and get a text out to her friends to get an update on the progress. She decided to text Ulrich.

[Are you guys at the factory yet?]

Yumi awaited the response. A moment later and her phone vibrated Ulrich had responded.

[We just got here. Going down the elevator right now]

Yumi sighed in relief, it wasn't too much time now until the tower was deactivated.

 ***With the others***

Jeremie was already in the seat of the supercomputer and the others had hid the button already to go to the scanner room.

"Alright guys the tower is in the forest section, lets get to it." Jeremie's voice rang out over the intercom.

In the scanner room Aelita, odd and Ulrich stepped into the scanners and their virtualization process began.

"Transfer Odd, transfer, Ulrich, transfer, Aelita. Scanner Odd, scanner Ulrich, scanner Aelita. Virtualization."

"Okay Roman, it's your turn. Step into the scanner exactly as you did before." Jeremie instructed.

Roman did not hesitate this time as he stepped inside with confidence.

"Good, now transfer Roman, scanner Roman, virtualization."

Roman had that feeling once again as he heard the last word leave Jeremie's mouth. His consciousness slipped once again before he fully regained it. He landed in the world taking a kneeling position and looked up finding his friends looking back at him.

"Good landing." Ulrich said.

"10/10" Odd said giving a thumbs up. Aelita giggled at her friends playful antics. Aelita looked up to make a remind Jeremie of a vital asset to reach the tower.

"Jeremie? What about-" Aelita began but was cut off by the sound of virtualizing vehicles.

"Vehicles? Don't worry, I got you." Jeremie said in a victorious tone. "The tower is 50 degrees north-east of you, hurry."

Roman looked at the materializing vehicles. One was a one-wheeled motorcycle, another was what looked like a hover scooter, and the last one looked like a pink hoverboard. Roman watched Ulrich mount the motorcycle, Aelita jumped on the hovering scooter, and odd backflipped and agility landed on the board. Both Ulrich and Odd took off. Leaving Aelita and Roman.

"Sheesh those two." Aelita extended a hand to Roman. Roman took her hand and was pulled on the board. Aelita looked back before taking off "Hold on" with that she took off easily catching up to Odd and Ulrich.

"So what do you think?" Aelita asked.

"Interesting choice of vehicles." Roman responded.

"What you are riding right now is called the Overwing. Odd rides the Overboard, and Ulrich rides the Overbike." Aelita filled in.

Three shots went past the group as each member on dodged the shot. The sudden maneuver made Roman focus on the source of the shots. Ahead he saw two crustaceans. Giant red crabs, they were guarding a tower with a red aura. Upon looking closer he saw there was some sort of symbol on the top of the crabs, it looked like an eye.

"See that eye on top of the crab's head?" Aelita asked.

"Yes." Roman responded.

"Hit that target to destroy X.A.N.A's monsters. I'll get you in close. When I do I want you to drop down and hit that target okay."

"Affirmative."

Aelita drove the overwing left and right dodging shots before riding right over one of the crabs. "Now!" She yelled. The moment Roman heard her signal he dropped down. Roman formed a knife hand and coated it in the black energy he had used before. Landing on top of the crab his hand pierced the eye like. There was a flash of white before the crab panicked causing Roman to fall onto his back. With a grunt he looked up to find the second grab standing over him with a leg up poised to strike. The leg came down and Roman could do nothing to stop it. Roman never felt the strike but heard the sound of something crashing. Ulrich had let his bike slide into the other leg of the crab causing it to fall. Odd saw the opportunity and flipped himself upside down "Laser arrow." An arrow fired into the eye. A white light shown from the hole that shined lighter before it exploded. Ulrich offered a hand to Roman and he took it lifting himself off of the ground.

"I saw that, you did pretty good for your first elimination. You didn't even get devirtualized." Ulrich complemented Roman.

"Gotta give you a three though for that landing after the take down" Odd said. "You landed on your back."

"Thank you for your assistance." Roman said.

"Don't worry about it. You'll get better as you fight." Odd reassured.

"Now for the finale" Ulrich said. Aelita jumped off the Overwing and ran towards the tower with a red aura.

"Is that safe." Roman said watching Aelita enter the tower.

"Yeah, she does it all the time" Odd said.

"How long have you all been doing this?" Roman asked. Odd and Ulrich looked at each other and blinked twice before answering.

"We kinda lost track. If you really want to know you can ask Einstein." Odd said.

"Einstein?" Roman questioned.

"That's our nickname for Jeremy." Ulrich answered.

"I see."

"Tower deactivated." Aelita announced.

 ***With Yumi***

Yumi struggled to break free of her father's grasp. Nothing she did could help her though. He hoisted her in the air choking her attempting to suffocate her. Yumi began to lose consciousness when suddenly the hold was broken and Yumi was dropped. Yumi's father and Hiroki both fell to the ground unconscious while Yumi sat there catching her breath. A few moments passed as Yumi finally gained her breath and she pulled out her phone.

 ***With the others***

Roman, Odd, Aelita, and Ulrich just returned to the supercomputer room from the scanner room.

"Another job well done." Jeremie congratulated the group.

"Roman made his first takedown" Aelita said motioning towards Roman.

"I saw" Jeremie said. As he was about to begin his next sentence the sound of a phone's ringtone could be heard. It was Jeremie's. "It's Yumi." Jeremy said as he answered the phone. "Hello."

"Hey you guys must have just deactivated the tower." Yumi said.

"Yeah everyone is back here at the factory" Jeremie responded.

"Good. Launch a Return To The Past. My dad and brother do not need to know why they are waking up in the middle of the street this time a night." Yumi ordered.

"One Return To The Past coming up." Jeremie responded as he hung up and began typing in the sequence.

"Return To The Past?" Roman questioned.

"The supercomputer can launch a program that sends the world back a few hours, even a whole day, back in time." Jeremy said while typing.

"How far are we going back?" Roman asked.

"Right about the time where dinner just ended." Jeremie finished typing in the last code and held his finger above the enter key. "Well time for your first return trip. Return To The Past now." With that said the enter key was pressed and a white light enveloped the whole room and before Roman knew it. He had just finished his dinner and looked at all of his friends. Looking around he noticed that Sissi had not come in yet. Did that mean she would not come this time? Now was not the time for that, he had a question to ask Jeremie.

"Jeremie, what all can the return trip revert?" Roman asked.

"Well it can revert injuries, memories, and occurrences. We don't use it if we don't have to though." Jeremie answered.

"Why?"

"Because it doubles X.A.N.A.'s power each time."

"Interesting."

"You know Roman that seems to be your favorite word today." Yumi observed.

Roman turned his attention towards Yumi to answer her. "Due to today's event that is only word that comes to mind that can describe such events that have transpired." Roman replied..

The door's opened and the attention of the Lyoko group were drawn once again to the arrival of Sissi, Nicolas, and Herb.

Walking past their table Sissi stopped to address Roman. "So you managed to get that transfer kid in your group huh? How'd you do it? Pressure him?" Sissi said with a smug grin once again.

' _The same words as before. Interesting. I can use this to my advantage'_ Roman thought to himself as he stood up and locket eye contact with Sissi before speaking.

"Sissi Delmas, perhaps you would like me to inform your father of your harassment" Roman said smoothly.

"My daddy would never believe you." Sissi said as she crossed her arms.

"That may prove to be true, but this time it is not only one person that can verify this occurrence. It is five." Roman said motioning towards his new group of friends.

With a "hmph" Sissi walked away. Herb followed her calling her name. Nicolas followed too but not without saying a few words to Roman.

"I didn't forget what you did, watch your back transfer kid." Before Nicolas could walk away Roman's voice stopped him.

"Nicolas Poliakoff, I apologize for my actions earlier, but I am not fond of aggressive contact. I merely responded naturally. I hope we can get along in the future." Roman's voice came out the same as the first time he said it.

Nicolas did not look Roman in the eye. He could not hold his gaze and decided to briskly walk towards Sissi. The rest of the Lyoko group left the cafeteria and began walking Yumi out once again.

"You know Roman even though your face is blank your eyes are the scariest part of you." Yumi stated.

"Yeah you have a look in your eyes that makes it feel like you're staring into our souls or something" Odd added on.

Roman merely blinked at the words of his friends. "I can not change that which I have been given."

"We know, so we don't want you to change. Just learn to show a few emotions is all." Yumi said.

Roman had one more question before the group saw Yumi off for the last time until tomorrow.

"Jeremie, will the same occurrence happen twice?" Roman asked.

"No." Jeremie denied. "X.A.N.A. needs to recharge himself to try and and attack us once again. When a tower is deactivated there is no telling when he will be ready for another attack but my Super Scan should alert me if there is any activity on Lyoko." Jeremie finished while showing the scan on his laptop to Roman.

The group saw Yumi off home and began to walk back towards the the dorms. With exchanged goodbyes once again Roman found himself sitting in his room once again with his book in his hand. Looking out his window he saw the moon and the night sky filled with stars.

' _Perhaps these people are the ones I've been looking for.'_

Roman did not know it but as he opened his notebook the ghost of a smile trimmed his lips. This smile quickly faltered as he furrowed his brows. His writing had been reset as well. He made a quick mental note of this before rewriting what was there before and going to sleep.

His notebook was left open, there were several paragraphs and under it all was a sentence.

" _I finally made friends."_

* * *

 **New AN: Hey, if anyone is reading this again then you'll notice some polishing I did. Roman was just too anime for my taste, so I tried to make him a little more normal. Keep in mind that his notebook is a key item to the group. I know it's been a while, but I needed time to think. I did not want to leech off of the original storyline, instead I would make my own and the progress of everyone would follow. So there will be some slight differences and hopefully you can enjoy it. To the new readers, welcome. I hope you enjoyed my first chapter and hopefully more.**

 **Well you managed to make it to the end. Interesting. If you liked it drop me a review and tell me what you thought about. All criticism is good criticism.**

 **New**

 **Xena out.**


	2. Chapter 2: A Failed Trip

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my oc Roman Kade. All credit goes to Moonscope. With that said, let's get on with the chapter**

 **Chapter 2: A Failed Trip**

* * *

" Wow look at him. He doesn't laugh at all." A young voice said.

"He's a freak. He never even smiles." Another voice said.

"And he's got white hair." A voice joined in. "How weird."

"Yeah, freak boy." A young girl said.

"Freak boy." A voice said. Then another. Suddenly he was surrounded with children around him yelling "freak boy."

"Stop." The white haired boy uttered quietly.

The voices did not stop. The chants became louder, he began to hear more voices join in.

"Stop it." He said slightly louder this time.

Soon there was a crowd surrounding him all looking down on him yelling "freak boy." The screams did not stop, they would not stop. The young boy tried to shut his ear but his efforts were proved futile. He could not block out the sounds. He could still hear them clear as day. While the children were screaming at him one child walked up to the boy trying to block out the sound and crouched close to him to whisper in his ear.

"We won't stop calling you what you are. You're not like the rest of us. You're a freak."

The white haired boy looked up at the sneering child and the sight terrified him. He had no face. None of the children around him had a face, only clothes and hair. Suddenly the crowd of people began closing in on him chanting louder and louder with each step. Soon it became unbearable.

"Stop it!" The boy raised his voice. The voices did not stop, they only got louder.

"Stop. Stop. STOP. STOP IT!"

Roman quickly sat up from his bed breathing heavily. Feeling moisture on his forehead he wiped it and noticed he had broken out into a cold sweat. Looking outside his window he noticed the rising sun and decided a shower was the best time to relieve himself of such a horrifying dream. Roman returned to his room and began to ready himself for the day ahead of him.

Upon exiting the dormitory building Roman noticed two girls looking around. One had red hair tied in twin ponytails and had white skin. The other girl held a camera, she had dark skin with her hair in braids tied upwards into one ponytail. Roman knew who these two were. The red head's name was Amelia Solovieff, the dark one's name was Tamiya Diop. Both of these girls were apart of the Kadic News. Amelia noticed Roman and nudged Tamiya to pay attention. Roman looked as the girls jogged up to him and began to introduce themselves.

"Hi! My names Milly."

"Hello, I'm Tamiya."

"We're with the Kadic News and hear you were the transfer student. We wanted to know if you're available for an interview." Amelia finished.

"Milly?" Roman questioned. "I found your name to be Amelia Solovieff."

Amelia scratched the back of her head in embarrassment and answered. "That's my name but everyone here calls me Milly."

"Do you know me too." Tamiya questioned hesitantly.

Roman's eyes turned towards Tamiya causing her to shift uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Tamiya Diop." He answered.

"Are you available for an interview?" Amelia asked once again.

Roman closed his eyes in thought. An interview would mean questions, troublesome ones. Opening his eyes Roman had his answer.

"Very well, you may interview me." A "yes" could be heard from Amelia as she high-fived Tamiya. "When would you like to interview me?"

"Oh, as soon as possible." Amelia answered.

"I will be available after my first class." Roman said.

"Great! We'll see you then." Amelia said before running off with her friend in tow.

Roman watched the two girls leave and began heading towards the cafeteria room for breakfast.

"Hey Roman." A familiar voice called out. Roman turned around to see three of his friends, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie approaching him.

"Good morning." Roman said

"Morning." Odd said with a yawn.

"You woke up early to get out here before us." Ulrich said.

"I enjoy the solitude of mornings." Roman responded. Jeremie began walking ahead of the others and looked back noticing they weren't with him.

"Well come on. Aelita might already be there, waiting on us."

They walked quickly to catch up with the blond genius. Upon entering the room they noticed Aelita getting her portion of food. With an exchange of greetings the group found themselves seated moments later. Aelita and Jeremie engaged each other in a conversation while Ulrich decided to talk to Roman.

"I saw you talking to Milly and Tamiya." Ulrich caught Roman's attention. "What'd they want? An interview?"

"Yes. Amelia Solovieff and Tamiya Diop are to interview me after my first class." Roman answered.

"You want one of us there too, just in case?" Odd asked.

"That won't be necessary. It's just an interview. Nothing more, nothing less." Roman finished with a shake of his head. A seat was pulled and a person sat down. The group turned their attention to the person to find it was Yumi. She did not seem to be in the talkative mood as she had set down without any greetings. Ulrich saw this and asked about it.

"Yumi, you okay? Something happen?"

"Ugh, I have to go on this class field trip that I really don't want to go on." Yumi said.

"When is it?"

"During lunch."

"Will you still have your phone on you right? You know, just in case?" Ulrich asked.

"Of course." Yumi said.

"Good, then if you're feeling bored text one of us. We've got homeroom today so we'll have some free time." Ulrich finished.

Jeremy decided it was time for he and Aelita to tell the others what they had been discussing. "So guys, me and Aelita were thinking about another mission to sector five."

"Sector five?" Roman questioned.

"It's a recently discovered section that has loads of information we haven't discovered yet." Aelita supplied.

"So guys what do you say?" Jeremie asked. Ulrich answered for the group.

"Sure but when do we go."

"Lunch time." Jeremie answered.

"Great." Yumi said. "Right when I have to leave today."

"If you want Yumi, we can wait until you're back, that way we have everyone." Jeremie suggested.

"No, it's just getting information. What's the worst that could happen?" Yumi said.

"A potential X.A.N.A attack." Roman said in his. This answer stopped Odd from eating as he retorted to Roman with his mouth full. His speech could not be understood because of the food in his mouth.

"You have to swallow your food first Odd." Aelita said with a giggle.

"Hey! Don't say that. You'll jinx it." Odd finally said with a clear voice.

"Come on Odd, it'll be fine. We just stopped him yesterday." Yumi said.

"Yumi's right." Jeremie said. "It usually takes him a while to do something again."

Odd crossed his arms at Jeremie's words. "It's still not good to jinx it. Anything could happen."

"Odd, if X.A.N.A attacks I will do your math homework for a week." Jeremie jokingly said.

"You better hope he doesn't attack then." Odd said with a wave of his finger.

"My apologies Odd. I was not aware of your superstition." Roman apologized.

"Don't worry about it Roman. Odd's always like this." Ulrich said with a grin.

A bell sounded signifying the start of the morning classes. An exchange of goodbyes from Yumi and the rest left them to attend their classes.

 ***After class***

"So Roman, you're actually going to give them an interview?" Odd asked.

"I agreed to give them the interview at the end of my first class. I keep my word." Roman answered.

Walking out of class Roman noticed Amelia and Tamiya sitting at a couple of benches waiting on him. Odd gave Roman a pat on the back before walking with the group to talk to Yumi. Amelia noticed Roman walking their way and tapped Tamiya before addressing Roman.

"Hey you came uh…."

"Roman, Roman Kade." Roman said as he walked to a bench to sit down.

"Okay so are you ready to start the interview?" Amelia asked.

"I am." Roman answered.

Amelia gave Tamiya the signal as she began recording. "Welcome to the Kadic Academy News Interview! Today we have the transfer student from America. Roman Kade. Say hello Roman."

"Hello."

Amelia was a little put off by the lack of energy, but decided to ask him a few questions anyway. "So Roman, what was your life like back in America?"

"My life, I lived it alone. Because of the genes of my parents I was an outcast. I talked to no one and kept to myself. If any trouble occurred it was handled in the most efficient manner." Roman answered.

"Did you try and make friends?"

"Yes, however, I never could because I couldn't match the energy of the others."

Amelia looked Roman but it was strange. He didn't react to anything. Like he was a statue or something. Keeping her thoughts to herself she decided a change of questions.

"Has anything changed since you've came to Kadic?"

"Yes." Amelia smiled at his answer. "I have made friends with Odd Della Robia, Ulrich Stern, Jeremie Belpois, Aelita Stones, and Ishiyama Yumi."

"Woah you got into their group. They're tight enough for others not to get in. How'd you do it?" Amelia said with wide eyes.

"Through an interesting turn of events they extended an invitation to me."

"What's it like being in their group?"

"Each person from their group offers something to hold it together. Not a single person is left out and they each can, and will engage you. I am grateful to be surrounded by such individuals." Roman said.

"I can tell you care for them." Milly said.

"It's my first group of friends, so yes, I care."

Tamiya gave Milly a sign indicating it was the end of the interview. "That's all the time we have for today Roman, thank you very much!" Milly finished excitedly.

Roman nodded his head at them and watched them walk away before going to rejoin the rest of his group.

 ***With Roman**

Roman found his group sitting on the steps in front of the entrance to the cafeteria. His group noticed and waved to him as he walked over. Not being able to read his expression Yumi asked a question.

"How'd the interview go?"

"The interview was fine.." Roman answered.

"What'd they ask?" Odd questioned.

"Things about my past, and what it was like being in this group."

"I hope you said some good things." Aelita said.

"I have." Roman simply answered.

"Well you came at the right time. We were just going over what we had to do on Lyoko before Yumi had to go." Jeremie said. Opening his laptop he began to go over the mission.

"The plan is to drop you in the desert sector. Once there I'll send you the pickup and you will arrive at sector 5." Jeremie looked at Roman to address him specifically for the next part. "Roman, you're going to be traveling between two different sectors so sit back and let the others lead you through helping where you can."

"Okay." Roman responded with a nod. Jeremie continued.

"While in sector five make your way through the area, same as usual, and protect Aelita as she gives me information. Make sure to stay on your toes though X.A.N.A's not just going to let us walk in there, okay." Jeremie finished.

With a sound of agreement from the four Yumi smiled at them. "You guys stay safe on Lyoko. It'll be Roman's first time in sector 5 so make sure that he keeps up."

"Don't worry Yumi" Odd said. "It'll be a okay. Jeremie just better hope nothing happens or I'll be homework free for a week."

The sound of another bell signified the starting of the next classes. With goodbyes Yumi and the others part once again to go to class.

 ***After class***

Yumi and her class boarded the bus along with their teacher.

"Okay class, this is an electronic bus. This means that the driver puts in the destination and the bus will take us there. Of course the steering wheel is there for manual input."

The teacher began telling her students why this trip was mandatory and what it would help the students to learn. Yumi sat in the back so she did not have to hear what her teacher said. All she wanted was to hang out with her friends and be there for the mission. Looking to the front she noticed the teacher had sat down and the ride had begun.

 ***With the others***

"Virtualization."

Four forms dropped to the desert ground. One of the four looked around as he took in his surroundings.

"I can feel the heat here." Roman said.

"Each sector simulates the weather of the environment." Jeremie's voice rang out. "Okay guys the transport point is about a kilometer northeast on a cliff."

"What, no vehicles this time?" Ulrich said.

"It's close so you're gonna have to run." Jeremie finished.

"Well exercise is good every now and then. Let's go!" Odd said taking off. Odd's running style intrigued Roman so he decided to ask about it.

"How is Odd able to move perfectly on fours?"

"My reflexes are way better here than on Earth." Odd answered. "You and everybody else should be more dynamic here too."

"Looks like Odd's been in a dictionary guys." Ulrich said teasing odd.

"Oh ha, ha." Odd sarcastically said.

Another few minutes of running and the group found themselves at the correct location. "You guys are at the transport spot." Jeremie said. "Entering the code 'Scipio'."

A large white sphere with the Lyoko symbol on it arose from the digital sea and in a white flash the group was enveloped. The sphere plunged into the digital sea and a second later another flash of light and the group was placed onto a platform with. Roman looked around, his surprise concealed by his face.

"Welcome to sector five Roman." Jeremie said.

"This place. What is it?" Roman asked. Jeremie's voice rang out to him in an answer.

"This is basically the database of Lyoko. You guys are there to uncover more about X.A.N.A so we can shut the supercomputer down."

"I see" Roman said.

"Okay guys the key is in a room two places from your position." Jeremie informed.

A series of doors opened up and the group took off. Jeremie gave orders as to how to reach the position of the key. "Left." He said as the group turned left. "Continue straight and the key should be in that room." The group arrived at the room and what four found normal, one found very bizarre. The way there had been pretty normal to him. Sure everything was blue, but that was a minor point. The room that held the "key" was full of pillars shifting both forward, back, up, and down.

"There it is!" An exclamation shook Roman from his thoughts. Redirecting his attention to the point of focus he saw a Lyoko sign sticking out from a wall at a high that could only be reached using the pillars. Suddenly Odd shot forward leaping onto the pillars with great agility. Each time he leaped and landed had shown his experience in him being on Lyoko.

"Odd's perfect for situations like this." Ulrich said.

Roman watched Odd carefully as he replied. "His skills make him a valuable asset to each mission." Aelita approached him as she also watched Odd.

"Everyone is valuable here Roman, don't think you aren't anymore useful than anyone else here."

Roman looked over at Aelita and back to Odd noticing that he had pressed key already. The pillars began lowering and returning to the room to normal. In front of him a line of walls opened up and he followed the group through. Once through they stopped on a ledge.

"Okay Roman in a few seconds you're going to see an lift come up. Jump on it with us okay?" Aelita said.

"Okay." Roman answered back. In a few seconds the lift came as Aelita said.

"Now!" She said as everyone jumped on the lift and jumped off together at another ledge. Aelita pressed her hand on what seemed like the open air when her hand came in contact with a screen.

"Okay Jeremie. I'm sending information to you now." Aelita said as she began bringing up various programs on the screen.

"Guys be careful there are Mantas coming your way." Jeremie warned.

"Mantas?" Roman questioned.

"Ever seen a stingray?" Odd asked. Roman nodded his head in response. "Well these are flying ones." Looking up Odd asked Jeremie a question. "How many are there?"

"Three." Jeremie answered. "You should see them right about…..Now!"

Exactly as Odd described three flying stingrays "Mantas" flew towards the group.

"Defend Aelita!" Ulrich commanded. The group took a defensive stance.

 ***With Yumi***

A black smoke traveled towards the bus with incredible speed and seeped inside it.

"What the, What is going on?" The bus driver said as sparks began to pop from the display.

"What seems to be the problem?" The teacher said approaching the bus driver.

"I don't know. I just lost control and now I can't even steer it." The bus driver responded while trying to turn the wheel.

Murmurs came from the student observing the scene before them. The teacher walked back to her students to console them and assure nothing was going to happen.

"Okay, there seems to have been a slight technical difficulty but don't worry. We'll be back on course in no time."

Suddenly the wheel of the bus turned, the bus course had changed and the pedal pressed inward speeding the bus up. A yell came from the students as they had been suddenly whipped around. Once settled Yumi ran to the front of the bus to see what happened. There was a sign on the display.

' _X.A.N.A.'_ Yumi thought. Taking out her phone she quickly dialed Jeremie's number.

"Yumi? What's wrong?" Jeremie said.

"X.A.N.A.'s at it again he's gained control over the bus on my field trip." Yumi said.

"What? He just tried something yesterday." Jeremie said.

"Well that's not stopping him today. Try to deactivate the tower, there's no way I can get out of here." Yumi said.

"I'll see where X.A.N.A.'s taking you." A few seconds and Jeremie had already predicted. His eye's widened at the destination. "Yumi, he gonna crash you guys into the nuclear plant!"

"What? He's already tried that." Yumi exclaimed.

"Yeah, only this time you're on the bus. I'll get the others on it. Hang tight." Jeremie responded.

 ***With the others***

Each warrior had dispatched a manta and they regrouped on Aelita. Vehicles began to materialize near them and Jeremie's voice rang out.

"Aelita. That's enough."

Aelita looked up in confusion at Jeremie's words. "What? Why?"

"X.A.N.A. is attacking, he's already taken control of the bus that Yumi is in. If you don't hurry and deactivate the tower in the forest sec-" Jeremie's attention was suddenly taken from him to look at a screen adjacent from him. "X.A.N.A's attacking the core!" We need two to go deactivate the tower and two to defend. Make your choice fast, Yumi doesn't have much time."

"Okay, me and Roman will go defend the core. You guys go ahead." Ulrich said.

"I'm fine with that. Let's go princess." Odd said as he and Aelita mounted their vehicles and departed. Ulrich mounted the Overbike and Roman soon followed after. With a rev of the bike they took off towards the core. Upon arrival Roman looked up and took in what he saw. A large white sphere surrounded by squares. The monsters around them blasted wave after wave at attacks at the sphere until one layer of the squares gave in and exploded.

"Hurry, the core just lost one shield layer." Jeremie said.

"Okay Roman you see those ugly things." Ulrich pointed out the creature to Roman. This creature had long, but slim front legs and a snake-like tail that appeared to be metal, it also had no eyes. "Those are called Creepers. Kill them in any way you can." Ulrich finished as he and Roman landed on a platform and began ascending towards the Creepers. Roman had an idea while climbing and decided to put it into play. Roman crouched low and infused his feet and legs with black energy. Roman jumped high, this allowed him to reach his very first Creeper. By the time he reached it Ulrich had already sprinted past him using his Super Sprint. The Creeper fired a shot at Roman that was easily sidestepped. Using the speed he got from his energy infused legs, he shot forward delivering a palm strike, shoving the Creeper off the edge.

 _'I see. I can only use one type of energy attack, not multiple.'_ Roman thought. He looked upwards and watched Ulrich dispatch two Creepers. Roman performed another leap towards the two more Creepers. Roman found himself not high enough to land on the platform he aimed for and hung onto the ledge. He slowly tried to pull himself up, but moved to the right as a shot landed where he was intended to get hit. The Creeper charged another shot but was silenced quickly by a slash from Ulrich. Ulrich dashed towards the remaining two Creepers he was forced to take a defensive against the Creepers open fire. Pulling himself up Roman stood behind the very two creepers shooting at his friend. Coating his hands in black energy he delivered to one creeper a knife hand strike to the head destroying it. The other turned towards him, but could not react as Roman had already struck it through with another knife hand and jumped away from the explosion.

"Thanks for the help." Ulrich said.

"The same to you." Roman responded. Jeremie's voice rang out once again.

"Good you guys did your part. Now head over to Lyoko, Odd should just be….ODD NO!" Jeremie exclaimed.

"What is it? What happened?" Ulrich asked.

"Odd just got devirtualized by a Hornet. Hurry back. Aelita needs your help." Jeremie said in a hurried voice.

"Roman, let's go." Ulrich and Roman began heading towards the Overbike.

 ***With Aelita***

Odd had been devirtualized, the only thing she could do is run while the Hornets chased her. Aelita ran but the Hornets never shot at her, very strange. Suddenly her run came to a stop because of what had just arrived in front of her. A large jellyfish creature with many tentacles approached her.

"Oh no! Jeremie!" Aelita yelled.

"No, not the Scyphozoa!" Jeremie yelled. "Roman, Ulrich step on it. Aelita just got captured by the Scyphozoa."

"We just got to the forest sector where is she?" Ulrich said. Suddenly his Overbike had been hit by a laser. Roman and Ulrich both jumped off of the vehicle before its explosion. A barrage of laser came towards the two as they evaded rolling to the side. Looking in front of them they seen the Scyphozoa holding Aelita. The tentacles had a red light coming from its body and towards Aelita's body. Roman charged a blast of energy and discharged it towards the creature and dropped to one knee because of the stamina use. Before the blast could connect the Scyphozoa released Aelita and retreated away from combat. Aelita stood up but she did not call out to her friends instead she ran in the direction of the tower before them.

"Oh no, Aelita's been infected with a virus. She's going to destroy the forest sector!" Jeremie's voice rang out in urgency. "Devirtualize her, quick!"

Roman attempted to move at the order of Jeremie, but he found himself lacking the stamina due to his recent attack. The Hornets came back around for another pass. Ulrich was able to move out of the way of the attack but Roman found himself completely vulnerable to the attack. Being hit multiple times Roman was devirtualized. Ulrich used Super sprint to catch up to Aelita. Upon reaching for her Aelita turned back and fired an Energy Field knocking Ulrich back, leaving him vulnerable to the oncoming strafe. Ulrich met the same fate as his black-clad friend.

Aelita entered the tower and stepped up to the middle of the platform. She was then lifted to the top and approached the screen that idled in front of her. She placed her hand on the screen, after a verification it read "CODE: X.A.N.A."

 ***With Yumi***

The bus had just take another turn and dead ahead of them was the nuclear plant Jeremie mentioned before. The terrified screams of the teacher and students alike were heard as they quickly began to meet their fate. Yumi could only shut her eyes and turn away from her approaching demise hoping for a miracle to happen.

 ***With Aelita***

Aelita found herself falling from a tower. Looking up she saw the Forest begin to disappear and then she heard Jeremie's voice in a shaken tone.

"Devirtualize Aelita."

 ***With Yumi***

The bus came to a screeching halt a few feet before it met the steel that held nuclear liquid. Sighs and cries of relief washed over the atmosphere of the bus as everyone rejoiced in their being able to live. Yumi pulled out her phone with joy and phoned Jeremie.

"Jeremie, you guys did it, everyone on the bus is safe." Jeremie's tone of voice quickly made Yumi's smile falter.

"We lost the Forest Sector Yumi."

Yumi could not believe her ears. Lost the Forest Sector? How? She needed to get back to the factory so she could get some answers. The field trip had been canceled so the bus had begun moving back towards the school. Watching the change in direction Yumi spoke to Jeremie once more.

"I'm going to be back at school soon. Where are you guys going to be?"

" My room." Jeremie said. After finishing his sentence he hung up the phone.

 ***In Jeremie's room***

Yumi opened to room door to see four downtrodden faces. One of the faces was focused on writing in his notebook, immediately she began asking questions. The group one by one began filling Yumi in on the unfortunate mission.

"What happened while I was gone? I thought you were only going to get information."

"We were." Jeremie began. "But when X.A.N.A. attacked he attacked the core as well to distract us."

"We went in groups of two. Ulrich and I proved capable of ridding the core of X.A.N.A's monsters. Odd traveled with Aelita to deactivate the tower." Roman said.

"Yeah, Hornets came, a lot of them. I couldn't take them all and I got deactivated." Odd fielded next.

"That's when I was captured by the Scyphozoa." Aelita said next.

"Me and Roman tried to stop her put Roman got devirtualized by the Hornets. I tried to catch her but she shot me with an Energy Field and I was next." Ulrich said.

"Aelita put in the Code: X.A.N.A. and the Forest sector was destroyed." Jeremie finished.

After taking all the information in Yumi formed her next question.

"Okay we lost one sector. So what? We've got three more."

"Yeah, but X.A.N.A. won once. That shows how much we've got to keep up our guard." Jeremie said. Suddenly Odd realized, or rather, remembered something.

"Wait a minute Jeremie. You have to do my math homework for a week! Yes!" Odd exclaimed in happiness. The group watched his little celebration.

"I totally forgot." Jeremie said facepalming.

"Well I didn't so it's adios to math for a week." Odd said. Odd then got up and began to exit the room.

"Where you going Odd?" Yumi asked.

"To take Kiwi out, he hasn't been out all day." Odd said while leaving.

"I'll go with you." Ulrich said. The two left the room.

"Well." Jeremie said turning to his computer. "I'm going to work on seeing what I can do about the Forest Sector." Aelita grabbed Jeremie's laptop and began typing on it.

"I'll stay and help you"

Yumi looked over to Roman and asked him a question.

"Hey Roman, you want to spar against me? I'm want to see how you fight since you have no weapons on Lyoko."

Roman halted his writing to answer his friend. "I see no issue with that. Where will this match take place?" Roman asked.

"The gym. Follow me." Yumi said leading Roman to their destination.

 ***In the gym***

"Okay Roman this is the gym." Yumi said opening a gym door.

Yumi walked towards the middle of the Gym floor and took a stance, inviting Roman to do the same. Roman walked towards Yumi and stopped halfway giving them some distance to begin the spar. Taking a stance Roman and Yumi both noticed a stray feather from a bird began falling.

"When that feather hits the floor we shall begin." Roman announced.

"First to three knockdowns win?" Yumi asked. Roman nodded in agreement at her question.

Lower and lower the feather dropped, both fighters counted down slowly in their heads.

' _3\. 2. 1. Go!'_

The feather hit the floor and both combatants dashed towards each other. The grunts of combat filled the air.

* * *

 **Okay I may know what you're thinking. "It didn't go that way in the show." Well no. This is my story and I wanted it to pan out like this. As you might have noticed the story takes place in season three and I plan on it going to season four.**

 **Don't like something? Let me know! Drop a review voicing your opinions and asking questions. They'll be answered in the next chapter.**

 **With that said.**

 **Xena out.**


	3. Chapter 3: Clone Disaster

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my oc Roman Kade. All credit goes to Moonscope. With that said, let's get on with the chapter**

 **Chapter 3: Clone disaster  
**

* * *

Two weeks past since the last X.A.N.A. attack and the loss of the Forest Sector. So far there was no trace of an attack since but that did not mean that nothing interesting had occurred. The spar that Roman had with Yumi revealed something that both learned that day: One, Roman was slowly starting to show emotion and two, Yumi was much better at physical combat than Roman thought.

 ***Two weeks earlier Roman vs. Yumi spar***

' _3\. 2. 1. Go!'_

Roman and Yumi dashed at each other and Yumi opened up the fight with a jumping kick. The kick passed the space where Roman's head previously occupied and Yumi found herself hopping back upon landing because of Roman's roundhouse. Forming a knife Roman attacked Yumi's abdomen. Yumi caught the invading hand and spun into Roman aiming an elbow for his head. Roman brought a hand up to catch the elbow and kicked the back of Yumi's leg causing her to release his hand and kneel. Roman quickly found himself turning upside down upon being flipped forward. Landing hard on his back Roman quickly rolled from the strike aimed for his head. Rolling backwards Roman reproached Yumi and they began exchanging blows. Yumi decided it was time to have her height contribute to the fight and began throwing kicks, distancing Roman from her. Roman aimed a fist for her head but it was easily countered and Roman's chest was quickly met with Yumi's foot as he had been kicked hard enough to roll back a few times.

"Not holding back, are you?" Roman asked with a pained grunt.

"If I did, I'd lose. I'm sure about that." Yumi answered.

"Your height is troublesome." Roman said getting back into a stance.

"Thanks."

That was all Yumi replied with before they started once again. Roman knew he had to get in close to nullify the advantage Yumi set for herself. Roman tried the offensive once again and went for a flying knee towards Yumi. Yumi easily dodged by shifting her body and found it was an opportune moment to try an aerial spin kick, so she did. Roman barely managed to dodge but found pain in his side. Yumi's second kick had landed perfectly on Roman's right and she followed up with a hook to the left side of his head. Roman ignored the pain and brought his arm up to block the hit and quickly issued a palm strike to Yumi's chest causing her to stumble back.

' _She's done for.'_ Roman thought.

Roman wanted to finish the match so he took advantage of Yumi's balance and feigned a hook into a sweep. Yumi showed her prowess by, not only regaining balance faster than Roman thought, but also avoiding the sweep. Roman recovered from his sweep and found a kick aimed for his body. He brought his hand to defend himself from the kick but found himself on his back blinking and staring at the ceiling. Yumi had feigned a forward kick and decided to go for a sweep of her own. Roman closed his eyes in defeat taking in the events that had just happened.

With a sigh he opened his eyes and found Yumi looking down at him. Yumi offered a hand that Roman took. Yumi's eyes widened when she helped Roman up. His eyes maintained their blank look but that's not where her focus was. It was his mouth. Roman had a smirk on his face! Yumi quickly took out her phone to snap a picture, but found the smirk gone. It was as if it never happened. Roman's head tilted slightly to the side at her actions and he asked a question.

"A message from Jeremie?"

"No." Yumi said shaking her head. "You were smirking. I wanted to take a picture to show you and the gang."

"Strange."

"You know I'm going to tell them right?"

"Do what you will." Roman finished as they left the gym.

 ***Present time***

Roman looked at his reflection in the mirror trying to visualize himself with the smirk his friend mentioned. To no avail he was not able to see it but found himself seeing something else. His reflection took a faceless form and stared back at him. Then it spoke out in a whisper.

"Freak boy." Roman visibly tensed up and the glass in front of him shattered as his fist had just been rammed into it. Uncurling his hand it was wracked with pain as shards of glass were stuck inside. Roman placed his hand in the other and rushed towards the nurse's office.

 ***Nurse's Office***

"How did you get glass in your hand?" The Nurse asked while wrapping Roman's hand.

"A hallucination." Roman answered.

"A hallucination? Are you alright?"

"Yes."

The nurse had finished wrapping Roman's hand when he answered. "There you go. Just make sure not to do anything too strenuous with it. Not until it heals at least."

Roman looked at his hand before forming his next question.

"How long will I have this?"

"About a week." The nurse answered back.

Clenching and unclenching his hand Roman found pain still there but not as noticeable as before.

"This will do. Thank you." Roman said as he began to leave but stopped at the door when he heard the nurse's words.

"It's a Saturday. Take it easy and you'll be fine in no time. Now go get breakfast. It's still early."

Roman looked back at his hand before answering. "I will."

 ***Cafeteria***

Upon arriving to the cafeteria Roman noticed his group already sat down at their usual table and eating. Roman grabbed his food and walked over, his sudden appearance catching Odd's attention.

"Hey Roman where were- Woah! Your hand. You alright?" Odd exclaimed.

"I am fine." Roman said sitting down.

"Well what happened?" Ulrich asked.

"A hallucination. I punched a glass, shattering it into my hand." Roman answered.

"That's some hallucination." Ulrich finished.

"Bad mornings aside you guys wanna go to the factory today? Me and Aelita finished a program for you guys." Jeremie asked.

"Yeah we put a lot of work into this one." Aelita said.

"Do you plan on telling us more about this program?" Roman asked.

"Nope. It's a surprise."

"Well no sense in waiting. Let's get a move on." Odd said.

The group left the cafeteria and were met by an approaching Sissi and company.

"Well well, where do you think you're going Ulrich dear?" Sissi said getting close to Ulrich.

"First off." Ulrich said stepping away. "I'm not you dear. Second, can't you see we're going somewhere." Ulrich turned away and his group began leaving when Sissi's statement caught his attention.

"Na uh. You're not going anywhere. Daddy wants you and he told me to come get you."

Ulrich narrowed his eyes at her and looked back at his group once more.

"Don't worry we'll bring you up to speed when you get there." Jeremie said.

Ulrich sighed before giving his answer to Sissi. "Alright then. Sissi let's go." At his answer Sissi gleefully latched herself onto Ulrich's arm much to his discontent. Her and her two companions walked towards the principal's office.

"I can see she is very taken with Ulrich." Roman observed as he watched the happy face of Sissi.

"Yeah, she's been like that for a long time now." Odd said. Odd's attention was drawn to Roman's staring.

"Hard to believe you cracked a smile huh?" Odd asked.

"I cannot see myself with one. When I tried.." Roman's unfinished sentence finished itself when he brought his bandaged hand up.

"Well don't worry. If Yumi managed to make you smile. Then that shows something." Odd finished.

"Oh don't forget. Someone call Yumi. We have to get her in on this." Jeremie said.

"On it." Aelita said as she rang up Yumi.

After the phone call the group took off towards the factory entrance.

 ***With Ulrich***

Ulrich pushed Sissi off of her for the third time and was fed up with her being touchy.

"Sissi stop latching onto me. It's annoying. What does the principal want with me anyway?"

Sissi shrugged her shoulders and responded. "I don't know. He just told me to bring you to him. Something about grades."

"Oh, it's about that." Ulrich rolled his eyes. Nicolas and Herb snickered at Ulrich's actions but turned their attention elsewhere when he glared at them.

"Oh well, I can go from here Sissi so I don't need you to come with me the rest of the way." Ulrich said. Sissi surprisingly was content with his answer and walked away with her group in tow.

Ulrich watched the group's retreating forms and let out a breath as he walked towards the door to the Principal's office. His hand reached out for the doorknob but stopped as he took one last deep breath. Opening the door he saw the Principal and also two more people sitting in chairs looking back at him. His mother and father were present.

' _This is going to be a while.'_ Ulrich thought before closing the door behind him.

 ***With the others***

The Lyoko Warriors were standing in a frozen landscape. Roman breathed into his hands and looked up.

"Cold."

"Yep, this is the Ice Sector." Odd said. Jeremie's voice rang out above them.

"Alright guys get ready. Me and Aelita put a lot of work into this."

Three pairs of eyes landed on Aelita as she just smiled back. "You guys are going to love this."

In front of them a virtualization seemed to take place. A from was placed in front of them but it was blank, like a dummy. Aelita approached the dummy and began to give her explanation.

"This is a training dummy. It is controlled by Jeremie and can change shape to any of you giving you the ability to spar and practice against one another."

The dummy changed to Aelita and began mimicking her movements.

"As you can see, Jeremie can set it to move with me, or." The dummy then stopped and got into a basic combat stance. "Set it for combat based off the many programs that are in the Supercomputer."

"Well done you two." Yumi said while clapping.

"Yeah, real good job. Now I can kick Ulrich's butt." Odd said.

Aelita noticed Roman had not said something as he normally would in these type of situations.

"What's wrong Roman? Already seen something like this?"

The mentioned Roman had a hand up to his chin in thought. "No" He answered. "I was thinking of all possible outcomes if X.A.N.A. had a hand in this"

"Don't worry. I've made sure to secure it." Jeremie's voice rang out.

The dummy changed forms but became glitchy and stopped moving for a second.

"Uh Einstein, something's wrong with it." Odd said wearily.

"I see it. I don't know what happened. Let me fix it." Jeremie began typing away at his computer. What he missed was a flash of the X.A.N.A. signal on another monitor.

"And finished. It should work correctly now." Jeremie said. A hint of pride in his voice.

The dummy changed to the form of Ulrich and the group began sparring with it.

A scanner opened up and a black-clad figure stepped out of it. Looking down and clenching his hands he looked up and the X.A.N.A. symbol flashed in his eyes. The figure moved for the exit of the Scanner Room from under the eye of Jeremie and slipped away. The figure had one destination in mind, Kadic Academy.

 ***With Ulrich***

"How could you let your grades drop like this!?" Ulrich's father's voice could be heard.

"Dear please calm down." Ulrich's mom tried to stop her husband.

"No, he needs to learn that I don't tolerate dropping grades." Ulrich's father said.

"Now now." Delmas said. "That is not necessary. We can place him in weekend classes, that way he can make up for his grades."

"He'll need a lot more than that. Is there a way you can double his lessons?" Ulrich's father asked.

"You can't be serious!" Ulrich exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm very serious. You need to learn that school is not a joke." Ulrich's dad said.

"Well there is a way we can have him take more lessons in a day." Delmas said.

"Good. Set that up as soon as you can. Our boy can not be-" Ulrich's dad's voice was cut off by the sound of splintering wood. Looking back a hand encased in black shot through the door.

"What the-"

The door was shoved off its' hinges and flew towards Ulrich who dived from his chair.

"What is going on here?" Delmas asked.

The person standing in the doorway was none other than Ulrich's friend.

"Roman?" Ulrich said in disbelief. He got no reply as the black-clad figure scanned the area. Roman's eyes locked with Ulrich and that's when his eyes flashed once more showing the X.A.N.A. symbol.

"That's Kade? What's he wearing?" Delmas asked.

"It's a long story." Ulrich answered.

 ***With the others***

"Aaah" Odd exclaimed as he was knocked back by a kick from the dummy transformed Yumi.

"I can only beat Aelita in hand-to-hand combat." Odd crossed his arms in a huff. "Not fair."

"Well Odd, she's the only one who doesn't have any experience fighting" Yumi said walking over to Odd.

"Guys bad news. X.A.N.A.'s activated a tower. In the mountain sector so get moving." Jeremie's voice rang out. "I'm programming the vehicles so get to the way tower and deactivate it."

"Looks like you get to ride the Overbike today." Yumi said.

"Seems that way." Roman said.

Each person got onto their vehicle with Aelita joining Yumi on her's.

 ***With Ulrich***

Ulrich's father and Delmas were on the floor groaning in pain from their attacker his mother grieving over her husband. Roman was in his Lyoko outfit and still retained his powers? How? How was he even taken over when he had already been to Lyoko? Jeremie had better explain this when he talked to him.

Avoiding a knife hand, Ulrich rolled towards the door and ran out of the principal's office. Taking out his phone Ulrich called Jeremie to inform them about this.

"Jeremie! Roman's attacking the school!"

"What? He's here in Lyoko. X.A.N.A. activated a tower." Jeremie responded

"Then this must be a polymorphic spectre. X.A.N.A.'s made a spectre of Roman and sent it for me."

"What? How? There isn't way he could, unless. The training dummy!" Jeremie concluded.

"I will try and buy you guys as much time as possible. Meanwhile I'll destroy the dummy's data. I did not think X.A.N.A. would think of something like this." Ulrich said.

"Alright. Good luck." Jeremie said and hung up

The spectre charged energy in his legs and, in a massive jump, landed in front of Ulrich. Ulrich got into a combat stance and the spectre did the same.

"Let's dance."

 ***With the others***

"Guys, I just got a call from Ulrich. Apparently X.A.N.A.'s taken the data from the program me and Aelita created and made a spectre of Roman."

"What?" Roman said.

"Ulrich is holding it off so let's hope you can deactivate the tower in time." Jeremie said.

The group of four emerged from the way tower into the mountain sector.

"I have no idea how long Ulrich can hold himself against a spectre of me. Especially from Lyoko."

"Don't worry. Ulrich will be fine. Let's focus on that tower." Odd said.

"Directly west of your position there should be the tower." Jeremie said.

"Yeah we see it. It's behind a few rocks." Yumi said. A swarm of five Hornets came at the group firing a barrage of blasts. Yumi and Odd moved out of the way but Roman jumped off of the Overbike to dodge the oncoming blasts. Yumi threw her fan at the swarm and caught one leaving four. Making a loop around the Hornets Yumi hovered close to the ground where Roman stood and Aelita jumped off.

"You take her to the tower." Odd said dodging another barrage of shots. "We'll take these."

Roman nodded in response as he and Aelita began making their way towards the tower. Using a set of rocks as cover Roman peeked his head out and seen two Krabs and an enemy he had not seen before. It was a giant, black, ball with X.A.N.A. symbols horizontally around it.

"There are two Krabs and a massive ball." Roman said.

"That's a Mega Tank. One hit will devirtualize you so watch out."

"How does it attack?"

"It'll open up and shoot a large red beam out. That's exactly the time to strike it though. It's weak point shows when it opens up."

"Interesting."

"Do you have a plan?"

"One."

"And that would be?"

"Hope that this works."

Aelita raised an eyebrow at the response from Roman.

"That's not something I expected you to say."

Roman looked at her once more.

"Neither did I. Cover me as I go in."

Roman stepped out from his cover and ran at the enemies with Aelita trailing slightly behind him. The Krabs open fired at Roman's position and the Mega Tank rolled around to get into position to fire. Roman charged energy in his legs and jumped high to avoid the lasers and landed onto the top of one of the Krabs and issued an energy-infused palm strike to the symbol. Roman jumped away from the exploding Krab and landed right in front of the second Krab. The Krab charged a shot but missed when Roman rolled under it. Roman kicked one of the legs of the Krab causing it to tilt and fall over.

Aelita fired an Energy Field at the Krab causing it to explode. The Mega Tank rolled around to Aelita and charged a blast. Roman saw this and charged another jump and leaped over shoving Aelita out of the way and immediately charged energy into his hands to block the oncoming blast.

"Go now." Roman grunted out

"Right." Aelita said. She ran past a defending Roman. She had nothing in front of her but the tower.

 ***Odd and Yumi***

"Laser Arrow!" Odd shot three arrows that met their intended targets. "Alright! I'm three for three. The last two are yours Yumi."

"No problem." Yumi threw both her fans at the remaining Hornets. One fan met its target, the other missed as the Hornet dodged right into another Laser Arrow.

"Alright that's the hornets gone. How's Aelita and Roman, Jeremie?" Odd asked.

"Roman just got devirtualized by a Mega Tank, but on the good side of news Aelita is in the tower." Jeremie responded

"Nice." Odd said.

"Awesome." Yumi said

"Now let's hope Ulrich can hold out for just a few moments longer." Jeremie said

 ***With Ulrich***

Ever since being involved with Lyoko, Ulrich's had to deal with many problems. Odd's feet, X.A.N.A.'s attempts on the world, even all the homework he had to study, but this, this was new for him. The worst part about it, he had never even fought Roman in real life, only in Lyoko! There they were even grounds. He had won in Lyoko because he had more experience, but real life was very different. Everytime he was hit, everytime he barely dodged a knife hand, he was painfully reminded of his human limits.

Sidestepping a kick from the spectre, Ulrich aimed a roundhouse kick for its head but was painfully placed on his back from a quick sweep from the Roman spectre. The earth beside him cratered slightly as an energy-infused foot met the ground beside his head as Ulrich barely managed to move it from being smashed. Rolling to avoid more stomps Ulrich backrolled to get back to his feet. As soon as he made it to his feet his breath was quickly relieved from him due to a charged projectile emitted from the spectre's fist. Ulrich's back harshly met a concrete wall as he slumped over in pain. The spectre stopped moving and began breathing very hard.

' _Oh yeah, he can't use that and keep moving.'_ Ulrich thought as he used the wall behind him for support to stand up.

Ulrich caught his breath and charged at the spectre. The spectre still recharging could not do anything in retaliation as its head met Ulrich's fist and it hit the floor. Ulrich mounted the spectre and began punching at its face. Punch after punch landed until its hand caught on of the fist and shoved Ulrich away. Ulrich stood up on shaky legs holding his chest. The spectre stood up and slowly approached Ulrich. Ulrich noticed the spectre's face, it was smiling! A crazy smile! A crazed smile on the usually blank face of his opponent was fighting was unnerving. He was supposed to smile, but not like this.

"Come on X.A.N.A., cut me a break." Ulrich said.

The spectre ran at Ulrich with a fist charged in energy. Ulrich closed his eyes and awaited the finishing blow.

It did not seem like the others were fast enough to deactivate the tower.

Ulrich waited for the finishing but it never came. Opening his eyes Ulrich saw the spectre bugging out. If this was happening then they did it. They deactivated the tower in time. Ulrich promptly fell back on his behind and let out a breath of relief as he looked up. He grabbed his cellphone. He had to make one last request.

"Ulrich! Are you alright?" Jeremie asked.

"I'm fine Einstein." Ulrich chuckled but stopped because of the pain in his chest. "A few scratches here and there. Can you launch a Return To The Past?"

"Why"

"Roman knocked out Delmas and my dad. I'd rather not explain to them why the new transfer student can generate energy from his hands."

"No problem. I'll launch one in a few seconds."

 ***With the others***

"Good job guys." Jeremie looked at the person next to him. "Looks like you gave Ulrich a bit of trouble Roman."

Roman nodded in response to his statement. "I will apologize to him when I see him again."

"Alright, you guys ready for a Return To The Past?"

A sound agreement from the remaining members of Lyoko was all he needed to hear as he typed out the commands for the return trip.

"Return to the past now." A white light ejected from the Supercomputer and enveloped the room. The white light kept going outside of the factory until it stretched across everything that could be seen.

It stopped and the next thing Roman knew he was sitting across from his friends in the cafeteria once again. Looking down at himself once he looked up to find four pairs of eyes placed on him.

"Don't worry. You'll get used to the return trips." Ulrich said.

"Ulrich. I apologize for the trouble my spectre gave you." Roman said.

"What? That was X.A.N.A. man. You couldn't do anything about it." Ulrich said with a wave of his hands.

"My question is why did he choose Roman of all people." Jeremie said.

"Because he's new." A voice said sitting down at their table.

"Yumi? What do you mean by that?" Jeremie said.

"He just got into our group so X.A.N.A. guessed that we wouldn't know much about the way he fights"

"Fair enough."

"Speaking of fighting, how'd you do against Roman's spectre?" Odd asked.

"He beat me bad. He still had all his powers from Lyoko so I was barely able to keep up." Ulrich winced.

"Well look at it this way. That was a X.A.N. Roman. You don't know yet if you can take the real one."

"What are you implying?" Roman asked.

"Well I-" Odd was cut off by Ulrich.

"Oh no. I fought him twice already. That's more than enough for me."

"Well I guess we learned a few things from that last attack." Yumi said.

"And that is?" Aelita asked.

"One, Roman's a tough guy and two, any programs you guys create can be manipulated against us." Yumi said.

"That just means we have to work harder to secure what we have. We can't go losing another sector now can we." Jeremie said.

"I second that statement." Roman said.

"Well since we got the whole day off, what do you guys want to do?" Ulrich asked.

"I'm going to skate around for a little while." Roman said standing up.

"Oh, can I come too?" Odd asked.

"By all means. I am still unfamiliar with the environment so it would be wise to have someone show me around." Roman responded.

The two exited the cafeteria.

"So what are you guys going to do?"Ulrich asked the remaining group members.

"I'm going back to my room to see about restoring the Forest sector. Aelita you can join me if you want." Jeremie suggested.

"Thanks but no. I'm going to listen to The Subsonics. I got their new album." Aelita said.

"What? When'd you get it?" Yumi asked.

"Last week. You want to listen to it?"

"Definitely." Yumi said as the two left the cafeteria.

"What are you going to do Ulrich?" Jeremie asked.

"I don't know I'll find something to do." Ulrich said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Ulrich dear!" Sissi said from the door of the cafeteria.

Ulrich facepalmed. He had forgotten about that. "Oh no."

"You forgot about Delmas?" Jeremie said.

"Yeah. It's alright though. I know how to deal with it this time."

Ulrich and Jeremie both left the cafeteria walking their own ways. One with three other people to deal with his parents and grades, the other to work on a new plan for his friends.

* * *

 **Don't like something? Let me know! Drop a review voicing your opinions and asking questions. They'll be answered in the next chapter.**

 **With that said.**

 **Xena out.**


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